[Jmol-users] Molecular playground scenes demo roll

[Theis, K. W. <kt...@we...>]

Hi,

I have been working on Molecular Playground<https://molecularplayground.org/> exhibits and thought I would share this demo roll: https://youtu.be/M_6_43c1E-Q

The video has multiple instances where nothing happens (and there is no sound). These are the times where the visitor has a choice of exploring the current exhibit, or do nothing (in which case the next exhibit opens after a while). Of course, you can skip ahead (there is a navigational table of context with my comments in the video description).

The first exhibit (ClpX) was written a long time ago (by or with Eric Martz) and shows how the user interface works: one hand to rotate, and two to zoom. The new Playground version has some feedback in the banner when the hands are "locked in" (dots for one hand, colons for two hands). The other exhibits are all new, and include inorganic, organic and biochemical molecules. Sometimes I use non-solid backgrounds to help convey ideas. In three exhibits, the user interaction goes beyond the usual (the usual is to monitor whether the visitor engages in rotating and zoom, and when they do, not to switch to the next exhibit). For the UvrB exhibit, I let the visitor choose what part of the molecule to explore in more detail. For the smelly molecule exhibit, visitors "waft" the molecules they are interested in, and get introduced to their smell. For the Lysozyme exhibit, I scripted a mini game, where the visitor tries to find certain amino acids in a limited time.

Apart from the ideas for more interactive exhibits, the visitor also has more agency to choose an exhibit. "Shrinking" a molecule will exit an exhibit. If you exit several exhibits, a menu will appear to allow choosing the exhibit that is shown next (rather than just proceed down the playlist).

The idea to use the orientation of the molecule as a trigger for the next scene is one I explored with Bob Hanson at the Proteopedia 10-year anniversary meeting in Amherst in 2018.

Karsten